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Yearender: Police brutality persists on account of impunity
Despite promises for reform, reports of police brutality continue to make headlines this year, raising doubts over law enforcement’s commitment to end a culture of violence that has been haunting their institution for decades.
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Culture of violence: Civil society activists and university students hold a banner that reads “Police reform“ (left) and “People's killer“ during a protest in front of the Central Java Police in Semarang, Central Java, on Nov. 28. The protesters demanded the police thoroughly investigate the police officer who shot a 17-year-old high school student to death on the early morning of Nov. 24. (Antara/Aji Styawan)
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t has been two years since National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo promised to carry out "a thorough evaluation and reform" inside his institution, following a high-profile murder of an officer by then-police internal affairs chief Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo that shocked the nation.
The two-star police general killed his own subordinate, Brig. Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, and ordered dozens of police officers to cover up the crime, in the biggest scandal that ever hit the police in the country’s history.
Despite the promise for reform, reports of police brutality continue to make headlines this year, raising doubts over law enforcement’s commitment to end a culture of violence that has been haunting their institution for decades.
In the past two months alone, at least three policemen were arrested for shooting their victims to death, two of whom were civilians and another a fellow officer.
An officer from the Palangka Raya Police in Central Kalimantan, Brig. Anton Kurniawan, was named a suspect last week in a murder-robbery case that took place on Jl. Tjilik Riwut in the Sei Gohong sub-district of Bukit Batu district in Palangka Raya on the morning of Nov. 27.
Read also: C. Kalimantan Police dishonorably discharge officer over murder case
According to Central Kalimantan Police chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Poerwanto, Anton allegedly stopped a delivery driver identified with the initials BA under the pretense that he needed the victim's testimony for an illegal levy case.
